After a short but unusually severe thunderstorm that roared through the D.C. area on Friday night, the entire Washington Metropolitan Area was thrown into chaos.

Three days later, countless traffic lights are still out, hundreds of thousands of residents are without power, including myself, grocery stores and gas station are closed for lack of power, and the federal government is encouraging employees to telework.

From WaPo:

The Washington region braced for a sweltering workweek and challenging commutes on Monday, with hundreds of traffic lights still dark, temperatures expected to climb into the 90s and nearly a half-million area households still without power.

Is this the work of a terrible terrorist attack? No, it is the complete disaster non-preparedness a decade after 9/11. Despite the fact that billions if not trillions have been spent since 9/11 on counter-terrorism and so-called "homeland security" measures, one of the major terrorist targets, the nation's capital, cannot cope with a severe thunderstorm.

I received a message from PEPCO that most D.C.-area residents may not have power until next Friday at 11:00 pm - a full week after the storm hit. With temperatures this week set for the mid to upper-90s, that is a long time for residents to be with air conditioning, or fans, or refrigerators.

Two years ago, the Washington Post's comprehensive examination of the billions of taxpayer dollars spent on "homeland security," "Top Secret America," reflected that the D.C. metropolitan area was burgeoning with infrastructure, though apparently none of it focused on keeping the D.C.-area up and running after a severe thunderstorm.

Though the storm Friday was, as all the news outlets are repeating, an "unusually severe" thunderstorm, the same thing happened in 2003 with Hurricane Isabel - the thousands of D.C.-area residents were left without power for an entire week.
(I won't even get started on the climate change deniers.)

I am not the only D.C. taxpayer wondering, where are billions in "critical infrastructure" protection and "homeland security?" They are not going toward obvious solutions like putting power lines underground.

The D.C. area's responsiveness to unexpected events has not improved, but taxpayers' pockets have been drained to create an entire secret city of "national security" in northern Virginia. Making sure citizens have food and power in an emergency should be a top priority, not a distant second to security theater like taking our shoes off before getting on an airplane.

Jesselyn Radack is National Security & Human Rights Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.

GAP has been conducting an investigation into the cover up of medical problems associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill since last fall. We are working with over 25 whistleblowers involving public health and safety threats that sharply contrast with BP and government denials and reassurances.

On March 2, GAP and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN), our partner in the Gulf, sent a joint letter to the BP America Ombudsman Program, seeking an explanation for a resource manual (provided to GAP by an anonymous source) that details health risks for Deepwater Horizon spill cleanup workers from both the five million gallons of oil, and the two million gallons of toxic dispersant.

The letter asked the BP Ombudsman to help resolve an apparent, complete contradiction between BP’s safety reassurances to and restrictions on its employees, compared to the conclusions, warnings and mandatory precautions required by its own internal manual. A confidential whistleblower informed GAP that the safety manuals were pulled from worksites early in the cleanup, as workers began to develop listed health symptoms.

Anonymous Whistleblower Provides Document;
Groups Send Letter as Settlement Looms

(Washington, DC) – Today, GAP and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) sent a joint letter to British Petroleum (BP) America's Ombudsman Program, seeking an explanation for a resource manual provided by an anonymous source that details health risks for Deepwater Horizon spill cleanup workers from both the five million gallons of oil, and the two million gallons of toxic dispersant.

The manual, "Deepwater Horizon MC252, Vessels of Opportunity Near Shore Oil Recovery Groups, Vessel Captains Hazard Communication" (available here) demonstrates apparent contradictions between BP's official written warnings about the oil dispersant, on the one hand, and its statements to the public on the other. The discrepancies pertain to verbal claims that exposure to COREXIT, the dispersant selected by BP and approved by the EPA to treat the oil, was safe, and the health problems actually associated with COREXIT listed in a BP manual.

The letter asserts:

To illustrate our concerns, BP has aerially sprayed or otherwise released over two million gallons of COREXIT as the primary dispersant in the spill's cleanup. BP and contractors have reassured cleanup crews that COREXIT is as safe as Dawn dishwasher soap. However, the manufacturer's Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) included in the manual indicate that the dispersants utilized contain hazardous ingredients such as 2 butoxyethanol, petroleum distillates, and sulfonic acids. The specific petroleum distillates and sulfonic acids within COREXIT EC9257A and EC9500A have never been disclosed to the public.

A report released by the Department of Interior last week confirmed suspicions that a Blowout Preventer (BOP) – a supposed fail-safe device on oil rigs – buckled moments before the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon last April, leaving 11 workers dead and millions of barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf.

The report, conducted by Norwegian firm, Det Norske Veritas, as part of the Interior Department’s investigation into the spill, concluded that there was a mechanical failure in the BOP’s so-called “rams”, which are supposed to cut the pipe coming up from the well in the event of the emergency. This action would shut the well and prevent the flow of oil and gas.

However, the 554-page analysis stops short of holding any player accountable for this fatal shortcoming. BP, which oversaw the operation; Transocean, which owned and was responsible for maintenance of the BOP and the rig; and Cameron International, which manufactured the failed device, were left nearly unscathed by the report’s findings. In fact, the New York Times reported that the day of its release, BP shares rose one percent, while Cameron’s fell by a nominal two percent, and Transocean shares remained roughly the same.

While these companies litigate over whose to blame, because of clever accounting tricks and the corporate tax structure, American taxpayers will foot an anticipated $10 billion of the cleanup -- which does not factor in the irrevocable environmental damage and human cost. Giving credit where credit’s due, the Obama administration did work with BP to establish a $20 billion dollar claims fund. In the fine print, however, that agreement included a deal that BP could keep whatever remaining funds were not used by 2013. Last December, during a TV interview, BP’s compensation czar attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who is administering the fund, said “it remains to be seen, but I hope that half the money would be more than enough to pay all the claims.”